Philipp Mayer hopes to win his first title since 2012 against teen star Valentin Kaftan

Maximilian Wild is in the final of an HTT-500 tournament for the second time in a week,…

Maximilian Wild is in the final of an HTT-500 tournament for the second time in a week, and on Monday evening the new HTT teen star Valentin Kaftan succeeded in doing the same trick just a few HTT floors down. The 15-year-old from the 1st Klosterneuburg Tennis Club, who celebrated his premiere title at the Prater Cup Future exactly a week ago, has been on a seemingly never-ending wave of success since his final victory over Marco Pecik. After victories over Michael Eder in the opening round and against local hero Elias Joachimsthaler in the round of 16, the youngest of the Kaftan Boys also defeated the number 1 of the Wolfgang Moser tournament in three sets. The 15-year-old, however, delivered the preliminary tournament free program in the semi-final against a weary looking Johannes Skoll. Kaftan sent the 23-year-old from TC Sitzenberg-Reidling into the second set with a zero, where the Gruner conqueror took his leave with decency and only after a decision in the tie-break. “The last days with a double tournament in Lower Austria were a bit too much for me” Skoll quickly found the reasons for his semifinal out. Kaftan, on the other hand, has now been undefeated for 8 games, is in an HTT final for the second time in 7 days and is about to secure his second HTT career title. However, the junior from Kaftan has been busy with an elementary problem since Monday evening due to his current successful run. His ITN is approaching with huge strides the value that could prevent his Kitzbühel start in the Challenger competition. A report from C.L

But maybe the Prater Cup future champ will get curious shooting help in the form of his final opponent on Tuesday evening. Because Kaftan’s opponent in the final of the Flötzersteig-Challengers is a very experienced HTT man. Philipp Mayer is not only 35 years old and equipped with the routine of 98 HTT career tournament starts, but also one who has already successfully performed on the very big stages of HTT. Naturally unforgotten and as the biggest day in the Schärdinger’s HTT career since summer 2009, August 15, 2010 will be remembered. On this summer day Philipp Mayer turned the hobby tennis world upside down, celebrated a mega success against all forecasts and balance sheets and rose as HTT Olympic champion to the completely large names of the route history. In the semifinals of the 2010 Olympic Tennis Tournament, he ended Andreas Harbarth’s dreams of gold with a victory over the first in the rankings at the time, and even then made the last step to the most brilliant of all medals in the final.

After the mega triumph at the 2010 HTT Olympics, many droughty years followed in sporting terms before Mayer reached an HTT final for the first time this weekend since September 2016. His 7:5, 6:4 success over Matthias Sitta gave the number 2 seeded Upper Austrian his eighth HTT career final in which Mayer, who slipped to rank 124 in the HTT computer ranking, is aiming for his fifth tournament victory on the hobby tennis tour. By the way: Mayer’s last title win was almost 6 years ago, and dates from September 2012, when he defeated a certain Markus Hobiger 6:1, 6:3 in the final of the September HTT-150 tournament there. And this Markus Hobiger set a new HTT record for tournament participation at the Flötzersteig premiere weekend. No player in the 28-year history of Austria’s largest amateur tennis series has yet managed 350 tournament starts as part of the hobby tennis tour. A fantastic record for the 41-year-old Guntramsdorfer, who even the first-round debacle against Herbert Gruner on Friday cannot dampen.